Celtics Forster closes in on Scottish shut-out record

21 February 2014 01:46

Celtic goalkeeper Fraser Forster claims he has given little thought to his record-breaking run of clean sheets.

The Hoops 'keeper successfully surpassed Charlie Shaw's 92-year-old club record as he kept his 12th Scottish Premiership shut-out in a row in last Sunday's 3-0 home win over St Johnstone.

Forster now only needs to keep Hearts at bay for 31 minutes in Saturday's match at Tynecastle to overtake Aberdeen 'keeper Bobby Clark's Scottish League record of 1,115 minutes.

However, the 25-year-old English international insists he has paid little attention to his record-breaking feats.

"I've not really talked about the record at all," Forster said.

"People have obviously mentioned to me in passing and it's nice that it's come along, but it only takes a deflection or a penalty then it's done. For me, it's nice but I haven't given it any real thought.

"It's not one of my goals mentally moving forward. When we do concede, it's nothing I will get disappointed about.

"I have heard bits and pieces about Charlie Shaw and he was a fantastic 'keeper for Celtic. Keeping that number of clean sheets at that time was brilliant and people within the club and around the club have been saying that I was getting close to breaking the record.

"But as I said, it's not something I have paid much attention to.

"I know what my aims are and I'm just focused on those and working hard on trying to reach them."

Standing in the way of Celtic and a 15th consecutive win in the league are bottom-of-the-table Hearts.

Sixty-three points separate the two sides with the Edinburgh club 16 points adrift of safety having suffered a 15-point deduction at the start of the season for entering administration.

The champions have won on their past four trips to Tynecastle, including a 7-0 thrashing on their previous visit in the Scottish Cup.

However, after going four matches without defeat in the league, Jambos manager Gary Locke believes that his side are in a better position to compete with the Hoops this time around.

"There's no point in looking backwards," Locke said.

"I feel now that we're in a better position and a better frame of mind going into this match than we were the last time.

"I feel we've done well in the league recently. It's a game, for me, that the young players need to go out to embrace and enjoy. It's going to be a great atmosphere."

Elsewhere on Saturday, second-placed Aberdeen will hope to reduce the 21-point gap to league leaders Celtic when they travel to Glasgow to take on strugglers Partick Thistle, who are in the relegation play-off place and have yet to win a match at home this season.

Ross County could leapfrog St Mirren when they meet at Victoria Park, St Johnstone welcome Inverness Caledonian Thistle to McDiarmid Park and Kilmarnock host Hibernian at Rugby Park, while the game between Dundee United, in fourth, and third-placed Motherwell will be played on Friday night.